


Fading Tattoos, Sunday Mornings, and Soulmates

by melchixr



Category: Spring Awakening - Sheik/Sater
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Deaf Character, I LOVE THIS SO SO MUCH, M/M, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, an anon requested this and i nutted, deaf moritz who just wants to be happy, edgy melchior who thinks love is a distraction, instead of the tattoo being the first words, it's a random sentence your soulmate has said to you at some point, moritz is deaf and melchi doesn't have a soulmate tattoo, then the tattoo disappears
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-09
Updated: 2016-10-09
Packaged: 2018-08-20 12:02:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,255
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8248054
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/melchixr/pseuds/melchixr
Summary: When they got older and started smoking cheap cigarettes and reading Rilke and Nietzsche and laying in the empty fields when they were ditching class with no where else to go, Melchior tried to explain it. It was unclear whether or not he was attempting to explain it to Moritz or to himself, but he stated that he believed he had no soulmate. He said that there was no need for romance in the real world and when the thin veil of ‘love’ is lifted, he saw that it held people back.





	

It could happen a million and one ways. And Moritz had seen it a million and one times. He had seen Otto’s face light up as showed him that the words he had always had inked into his forearm had vanished. He had heard his hour long story about how Georg had leaned over on his shoulder on the bus ride to school and signed ‘I have band first period and I wanna drink bleach’ and Otto’s arm felt like it was on fire.

He had even been there  when Ernst popped a new battery into his hearing aids after them being dead for almost half a day on a dead battery. He chuckled and spoke and signed at the same time, ‘Oh god, I can hear colors!’. And Hanschen, from his seat right next to Ernst, balled his hand into fists and said, according to Melitta, “Oh my fucking god, Robel. Of course it’s you.”

And he had seen Melchior. He had seen it since they had first met that day in elementary school and Melchior was the only person in the whole school that knew sign language. He would sit with Moritz every single recess since that day, speaking as well as signing even though Moritz couldn’t actually hear a word he was saying. But he never once mentioned that, he was content with seeing the expressions that bloomed upon Melchior’s face as he spoke. When and when his eyes weren’t watching his hands rapidly signing or his face holding non barriered emotion, they went to his arm. Specifically, his bare arm. Completely and utterly bare. Not a single mark.

When they got older and started smoking cheap cigarettes and reading Rilke and Nietzsche and laying in the empty fields when they were ditching class with no where else to go, Melchior tried to explain it. It was unclear whether or not he was attempting to explain it to Moritz or to himself, but he stated that he believed he had no soulmate. He said that there was no need for romance in the real world and when the thin veil of ‘love’ is lifted, he saw that it held people back.

‘No time to waste now with love,’ He has signed to Mortiz as they sat lazily in the boughs of a tree through the summer heat. Moritz sat upon a lower branch, craning his neck up to watch Melchior’s quick hands. His bare feet, socks and shoes kicked aside much earlier that day, hung down to gently brush the green grass below them. ‘Now that I know that I don’t have a soulmate, I have nothing to distract me.’

‘Distract you from what?’ Moritz asked, almost tumbling off of the branch in the process.

Melchior let out a chuckle that Mortiz could not hear but still longed to. ‘Studies I suppose.’

‘And when you are all done with studying?’

‘Moritz, my friend, don’t be dumb,’ Melchior smiled very politely, a smirk hiding behind his lips. ‘When will I ever be done with my studying?’

Days passed, which fell into weeks, and months, and years. All filled with things Moritz wouldn’t ever try to forget. Little moments that would sit firmly in the back of his mind and make nests their, buried in the little things that Melchior would say to him.

‘I can’t drive with just one hand, but I can try!’ He rapidly signed when he picked up Moritz the day he got his license and went around the block

‘This is boring, I wanna go to In-N-Out,’ He had stated when they ditched French class to wander through their small town aimlessly.

‘You’re a fucking mess. Is that what you’re going for?” He fixed Moritz’s hair, pulling his hands away to sign for only a moment before going right back to attempting to solve the mess on Moritz’s head.

So many things can happen in ten years of knowing someone. And yet it all came down to a Sunday morning, Melchior’s mother and father were already away at church and the two boys had full rule of the house. With all that power, they decided to crawl upon the roof through Melchior’s window. The pair scrambled up the gable roof, shingles scraping their palms up as they went.

‘God, this is steeper than it looks!’ Moritz signed with an exasperated huff that made Melchior chuckle weakly. He took a seat beside the younger on the roof, hugging his knees to his chest and almost toppling over in the process. But Mortiz didn’t seem to notice.

‘Oh, I know,’ He patted Moritz’s arm to catch his attention before signing. He made the poor boy look away from the long expanse of countryside around the Gabor’s house. Rolling green hills dotted with trees and the goats and cows they had in their makeshift farm. The sky was a soft soft blue, splattered with clouds like paint upon a canvas. ‘I used to climb up here as a child. I almost fell off so many times.’

Moritz scoffed, a pale hand rubbing one of his sleepy brown eyes. ‘You still are a child, Melchi.’

‘That make you a child too then,’ Melchior stretched out, his back on the harsh shingles as tan skin soaked in the mid-morning light. He tucked his hands behind his head, too lazy to actually sign his next sentence, which he was saying merely for himself. “We’re just a couple of kids…..”

The cry erupting from Moritz was shocking. A low guttural noise that manifested itself in a twisted sort of shout that he had no control of. Melchior immediately looked over to see Moritz sat rigid upright, clutching his right forearm with his opposite hand. He had a well of tears in both of his eyes as whimpers came out of his mouth mangled and wounded.

“Mo!” Shouted Melchior before he leaned in to look at the tattoo he had completely forgotten. It was now fading away into pale skin, slowly becoming indistinguishable. The words he had pressed into his memory yet somehow forgot.

‘We’re just a couple of kids’

‘Mo, are you okay?’ He signed rapidly with his heart beating quick.

Moritz looked up with is eyes wide and shocked. ‘My tattoo! It’s gone!’

There was silence between the two for a few rare moments. Their eyes looked over one another like their bodies were unknown and they were being looked upon with brand new gazes.

It took ten years. But here they were, new in each other’s eyes and foreign to each other’s hearts.

‘Wow’ Muttered Melchior when he realized they had both frozen in their spots. ‘We’re…..Soulmates.’

Moritz shook his head over and over again in complete disbelief. He thought back to the recess field and the boy who came up to him with scraped up knees and hopeless green eyes. ‘I’m Melchior,’ He had signed with a toothy grin. ‘That’s M-E-L-C-H-I-O-R. I like your sweater!’

He had been amazed. Completely amazed that anyone else could speak to him besides his mother and father. He remembered gazing up at Melchior like he was mesmerized. He was just as mesmerized by the boy sta in front of him now, with bags under his eyes and freckles across his nose and reading glasses in front of green eyes holding a mix of surprise and pure glee.

‘So much for your studies, Melchi.’

He could not help but giggle then, no hesitation stopping him from reaching out and ruffling Melchior’s messy waves.

‘I’m happy with that.’

**Author's Note:**

> i actually love this fic so so much. originally posted on my tumblr @likeinlxtin. most of this was written while i sobbed over hunchback of notre dame. i really really hope you enjoyed this (that's really the only reason why i publish these trash fics). thank you for reading


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